Reliance Jio unveils JioGlass to expand presence in virtual reality space

 Reliance Jio on Wednesday unveiled JioGlass to strengthen its presence in virtual reality space and capitalise on remote working culture triggered by Covid-19 pandemic.

The concept of digital glass and product was started by Google a few years back. The unveiling of Jio Glass coincided with Google's Rs 33,737 crore investments in Jio Platforms for 7.7 per cent stake.

"Jio Glass comes with a convenient cable that you can attach to your phone and thus connect to the internet. It is at cutting edge of the technology that provides best in class mixed reality service," Reliance Jio Infocomm President Kiran M Thomas said at RIL annual general meeting (AGM).

It has an in-built audio system and it can make calls to contact on voice command.

"In times of Covid-19, ways of working and workspace have completely changed and digital collaborations have seen an exponential growth. We can completely imagine this in mixed reality space. With Jio Glass, you could be sitting at home and join a meeting in your office with your colleagues in three dimensions," the presenter said.

While Thomas did not disclose the price of JioGlass, e-commerce platforms show similar digital glass with access to apps and internet in the price range of around Rs 37,000- Rs 40,000 a unit.

"While you are chatting with your colleagues, you can also share presentations that you will be able to view and present on a large virtual screen in any virtual environment you want with the help of JioGlass," he noted.

JioGlass is enabling teachers to conduct hologram class in 3D virtual rooms, Thomas said.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) director Isha Ambani said that Jio is committed to solve the problem being faced in education and health space though.

"With Jio meet you can conduct daily online assemblies for your entire schools and hold full day sessions as there is no limit on number of students or call duration," Isha Ambani said.

The company is also working to resolve the issue of shortage in teachers as well issues around untrained teachers through the "Embibe" platform where students can pick content of any class and improve their learnings, she added.

The company also announced making television watching interactive, as Jio TV plus users can now participate in TV programmes for voting etc in real time.

"We believe interactivity on the TV or two-way communication is the future of consumption," RJIL director Akash Ambani said.

Jio has brought in all the major over-the-top video entertainment apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar etc on its Jio TV plus which users can access through a click of button on the remote doing away with the need for separately logging in to each application.

Source: business-standard

Solar Eclipse - a Celestial 'Ring of Fire' witnessed this year 2020

Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East witnessed a dramatic "ring of fire" solar eclipse Sunday.

So-called annular eclipses occur when the Moon - passing between Earth and the Sun - is not quite close enough to our planet to completely obscure sunlight, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible

Solar Eclipse 2020 marked one of only 5 such instances where a maximum solar eclipse was visible from India in a timeframe of the next 100 years. The annular belt of the eclipse in India passed through cities like Joshimath and Dehradun in Uttrakhand, Sirsa in Haryana, parts of Rajasthan, but the eclipse was witnessed from every corner of the country.

India witnessed the magnificent 'Ring of Fire' and saw the skies turn dark as the Moon overshadowed the mighty Sun. Delhites were left disappointed since overcast weather deprived them of the historic sight.

      Partial solar eclipse from Kathmandu, Nepal

What is Solar Eclipse?

A solar eclipse is witnessed when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. During the Surya Grahan phenomenon, the image of the Sun is totally or partly obscured. In the case of an annual solar eclipse, the moon's apparent diameter is smaller than that of the Sun. The phenomenon also blocks most of the sunlight, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometers wide. 

The silhouette of an aeroplane below the eclipse, Lhasa, Tibet

This was the last annular solar eclipse of the decade. With the next solar eclipse visible in India 11 years away in 2031, this marks a big astronomical event here. The solar eclipse started from around 9 a.m. across the Indian map as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth came in a straight line, and the country witnessed the 'deepest' annular solar eclipse in over a century and the third eclipse even for this year after first two lunar eclipses took place in January and June.

People view the eclipse from scaffolding in Kuwait

Astrologers said it is a fourth super rare hybrid eclipse which is a mix between an annular and total solar eclipse. Areas like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Shillong and more witnessed a partial phase of the annular solar eclipse from 9 a.m.

A girl observes the solar eclipse from the Mahanakhon Skywalk glass tray, Bangkok, Thailand

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the apparent size of the moon is only slightly less than the Sun's - or the Moon almost covers the Sun - leaving only the outer rim of the Sun uncovered, and hence giving the appearance of a "ring of fire" or as a necklace of pearls. The ring this time was very thin, as the Moon covered over 98.8 per cent of the Sun, making it the deepest annular eclipse of the century in India. 

Courtesy: theguardian, livemint, indiaTV

Scientists find 2 flies trapped in amber that died while mating 41 million years ago

Scientists have found 2 mating flies trapped in prehistoric amber and it is being estimated that the flies have remained in that position for almost 41 million years now. Yes, you read that right.

The pair of flies was discovered from a haul of unusual fossils recovered from sites across Australia and New Zealand. The findings of the study were recently published.

According to Jeffrey Stilwell, a palaeontologist and the co-author of the paper, the flies were mating when they accidentally got trapped in gluey resin of a tree which eventually hardened over the years.

"I looked at the piece under the microscope, and when I looked at it, I felt it looked really important, because it looked like they're almost attached or something," said Stilwell while speaking about this rare discovery. "I couldn't believe it - it looks like they're mating," he added.

Stilwell calls this "frozen behavior" because according to him, "absolutely nothing happened in the moments between when the flies were living and when they died and became entombed."

Apart from the mating flies, the scientists also discovered ants, spiders, midges, and several other insects trapped in amber.

Source:indiatoday

Earth Is Vibrating Substantially Less Because There's So Little Activity Right Now

Flights are grounded. Fewer trains are running. Rush hour is gone. The world - particularly in cities - is looking drastically different during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

According to seismologists, that drastic reduction in human hustle and bustle is causing the Earth to move substantially less. The planet is 'standing still'.

Thomas Lecocq, a geologist and seismologist at the Royal Observatory in Belgium, noticed that the country's capital Brussels is experiencing a 30 to 50 percent reduction in ambient seismic noise since the lockdowns began, as CNN reports.

That means data collected by seismologists is becoming more accurate, capable of detecting even the smallest tremors - despite the fact that many of the scientific instruments in use today are near city centers.

"You'll get a signal with less noise on top, allowing you to squeeze a little more information out of those events," Andy Frassetto, a seismologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington DC told Nature.

Researchers in Los Angeles and in West London, UK noticed a similar trend.

But seismologists collecting data from remote stations far away from human civilization might not see a change at all, according to Nature.

Regardless, a significant drop in seismic noise also shows that we're at least doing one thing right during the current pandemic: staying in the safety of our own homes as we wait for the virus to run its course.